Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (53 page)

osh was there when I woke up. His calloused fingers stroked my palm and I relished the intimacy of the act. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

My head felt like the crap end of a jackhammer and everything ached, but otherwise I felt fine. “I feel like I drank a handle of tequila pre-powers days.”

Josh pressed his lips together, struggling not to laugh. He shook his head.

I didn’t get it. “What?”

He straightened up and kissed my forehead. “Nothing. I’m just happy you’re awake and alive. For a second I thought I lost you…” His eyes flicked away and he swallowed down emotion he didn’t want me to see.

Too bad I caught it. Anxiety flashed through me. “How long have I been out? Was there a chance I wouldn’t wake up?” What went wrong? It was more than Sophia and I usually moved, and we knew we’d be down for the count, but it couldn’t have been
that
bad.

Josh put a hand to either side of my face. “Everything’s fine, Chels. You were only out for a few hours. Sophia’s awake, too. We were just waiting for you is all. I love you.”

Everything was fine. Everything—even Josh and me.

I drew Josh in and kissed him, tender and slow. Like nothing could break us apart, like nothing ever would. Everyone was safe, SeaSatellite5 crew and otherwise. That was something to celebrate. Something to cherish.

After a few moments, Josh pulled back. He licked his lips and smiled. “Think you can walk?”

My legs weren’t aching as much as my head. I nodded and moved my hand to his shoulder. “Help me sit up?”

He snaked his arm around my side, under my arms, and helped me stand up from the gurney.

“Much better,” I said. “And look at me, still wearing a uniform and not a hospital gown.”

So quick I almost missed it, a wicked, mischievous grin flashed across Josh’s lips. “Shame. Easier that way,” he said, then spun for the door.

I reached out and pulled him back to me. Being stronger than him, the action turned him around. I caught his lips with mine and threw fire behind it. His hands danced down my back to my lips, pulling me closer. I looked into his deep caramel eyes, raw need blooming inside me. His strength after battle, this leftover adrenaline, all of it was too much. I wanted to get him alone and behind a locked door as soon as possible, but knew it wouldn’t happen until after debriefings and repairs. This would have to be enough for now. I kissed him again, tangling my fingers in his hair.

“I love you,” I whispered. At least I think I did.

He didn’t respond, and the words were lost to a toe-curling encounter.

“Things have grown complicated since you’ve been gone,” I said to the room. I stood before Captain Marks and his senior staff in the Briefing Room. Captain Marks sat in his usual chair at the end of the table, flanked by Commander Devins and Weyland, his old Head of Security. Weyland wasn’t rejoining SeaSatellite5, but because he was on board when the station was hijacked—the event that catalyzed this snowball down its first of many slopes—he was invited to attend the debriefing.

Trevor stood next to me, carefully masking his thoughts. I attempted the same. I wasn’t sure how he had learned hide his thoughts so suddenly, but I couldn’t read him even when I tried. It felt like he’d put up a screen in his mind, blocking me from catching a feeling or thought. But then a single image broke through. Me punching an Atlantean into SeaSat5’s hull with all the force of a wrecking ball.

I startled and gripped the top of the chair in front of me. How did I hit that hard? I
didn’t
hit that hard. My strength wasn’t that strong.

Sophia thinks you have a f
ourth power, Trevor’s thoughts seeped into my head.

My jaw set hard. A fourth. Teleportation, healing, water, and strength. And now something more?

Like what?

He gave the slightest shrug.
Not sure. Maybe telekinesis? Fits the powers Dr. Gordon’s studied all along.

I slipped my hands from the chair and into my pockets. Telekinesis. Freaking weird.

Yeah,
Trevor thought.
I’d keep them in your pockets, too. Don’t move them too fast or anything.

The Captain cleared his throat, like he could tell Trevor and I were having a silent conversation and wanted us to stop. He wanted answers, and only we had them.

“Should we start with how you two have apparently joined the military?” Lieutenant Commander Christa Jackson asked from her seat between Commander Devins and Freddy.

Seated opposite Christa, Helen nodded. “I’d like to know how that happened, too. And how you met up with Sophia.”

I glanced quickly at her. “You told me you’d never seen my teleportation power before. Truth for a truth?”

She folded her hands on the tabletop and looked to me with those “good doctor” eyes she’d used on me the day we first met. “That’s because I hadn’t. When I met and subsequently worked with Sophia Burns, she only had super strength and superior healing abilities.”

Then why’d she act so surprised when I sprouted healing powers?

Trevor coughed.

If you could stay out of my head for the briefing, that’d be awesome,
I told him.

He stretched his arms.

“Sophia works for the same organization as Dr. Connor Hill,” I answered Helen. “He knew more than he let on during the outpost investigation.”

“I’m beginning to gather that,” Captain Marks said. His brow was scrunched up pensively. Aside from the scare when Josh found him, Captain Marks was okay. Shocked and confused, but okay.

Trevor shifted beside me. “We didn’t necessarily
join
the military. We wear the uniform but, like Dr. Hill said when he first boarded SeaSat5, we’re basically independent contractors. We signed up to find you guys.”

“At TAO at least,” Weyland joined in. Commander Devins gave him a weird stare, so Weyland elaborated, saying, “Chelsea’s considered as good as joined as far as TruGates goes. We’re all ex-military and she’s got better skills than half the vets there.”

Commander Devins’s eyebrow rose. He
so
didn’t believe it. To be honest, neither did I. In my whole time with TruGates, I’d never considered myself ex-military or anything close to that. I just was. “I’ve only been with you for a few weeks, Weyland.”

He nodded. “And you got us out of some sticky situations.”

I eyed him down. No, I hadn’t. I’d gotten Truman killed, and now Weyland knew
exactly
how and why. He didn’t verbally respond. Instead, he gave me that same caring, pushy look he’d given me at the club the night I botched their job. It said,
I know what’s going on and it’s okay. Don’t worry
. Didn’t he know how hard that was to do when so many bad things had been
my fault
?

“So if Dr. Hill knew more than he let on during the outpost investigation, what does that change about the hijacking?” Captain Marks asked.

“You mean why was Dr. Hill in the Brig the whole time?” I asked.

“He didn’t know Thompson,” Trevor answered. “But he knew about the Lemurians. SeaSatellite5 was apparently funded in part by TAO, and TAO is sided with Atlantis—or was sided with Atlantis—so…”

“He knew, and they didn’t like it,” I concluded.

“And I knew more than I let on, too,” Trevor said.

Commander Devins pinned him with a stare that had
me
quaking in my TAO-grade boots. “Excuse me?”

Trevor nodded at Captain Marks. “You know some of it, Captain, obviously. I knew what my parents were—are—into, and I knew Thompson, what we had really found, and that Atlantis probably still existed right alongside Lemuria. I knew there was a chance we’d be hijacked. What I didn’t know was who Dr. Hill really was, or what his affiliation with TAO meant, or the real extent of the Lemurian-Atlantean war.” He shook his head. “I thought I did. I thought I could’ve protected the station. I was wrong, and for that, I am more sorry than you can ever know.”

I believed him. Dread and guilt washed over me, and it wasn’t mine this time.

Captain Marks and his Commander shared a lengthy look. They weren’t telepathic like me and Trevor were now, but their unspoken conversation was palpable.

After a few moments, Captain Marks looked back to us. “How much danger is SeaSatellite5 in right now?”

I really hoped he wouldn’t ask that. But he deserved to know. They all did. “During the rescue it became apparent there was, probably, a third reason why Thompson wanted the station.”

“A third?” Helen asked.

I lifted my hand and ticked off the reasons on my fingers. “The artifacts, which are actually Link Pieces and tools used for time-travel. Me, because I’m an Atlantean super soldier—and that’s something else we need to talk about eventually. And three, the station itself is apparently a Link Piece and it’s connected to something
big
.”

A thick silence bathed the room so quickly you’d have thought we’d entered vacuum space. No one spoke until Trevor cleared his throat and said, “I can’t see Link Pieces, so I never knew. And until earlier, Chelsea had never seen SeaSat5 from the outside.”

Freddy, who’d been silent the whole time, sat up straight in his chair. “You’ve taken shuttles to and from the station, and didn’t you take a helicopter from here once?”